Foyt hit the wall in Turn 2 when his right rear wheel broke. A.J. was not hurt, but his March was damaged extensively.

Andretti avoided the wall when he twice spun in Turn 2, where he said there was ``a new bump that`s like a wart. It just grew.``

Last year, by the time Andretti had held off a furious late charge by Tom Sneva to win the Michigan 500, nine drivers had been involved in five separate accidents.

Some drivers blamed the bumpy track for the mishaps. Roger Penske`s two-mile Michigan oval, with its enticing 18-degree banking and wide turns, is as treacherous as it is seductive.

``This track is definitely not up to specs,`` said Kevin Cogan after he finished eighth last July. ``There`s no way we should be doing 209 out there.``

``There are four-inch gaps in the pavement,`` Bobby Rahal charged. ``It`s like driving a taxi. When something breaks, you`re just a passenger.``

Johnny Rutherford set an all-time Indy-car qualifying record of 215.189 miles an hour before last September`s 200-mile Detroit News Grand Prix at MIS. Yet Rutherford admits he`s afraid of the track.

``If I were a rookie and they put me in this place, I would consider whether I really wanted to be a race driver or not.`` Rutherford said. ``It`s quite rough.

``They`ve done some patch jobs on the racing surface. Rick Mears and I took the paving contractor out and showed him a couple of things that needed to be worked on. But the place is obviously in need of a new face job.``

After testing the partially refurbished track in his Lola in June, Andretti yelped, ``Don`t ask me what the gauges read, because I can`t take my eyes off the road, let alone focus on the gauges.``

Defying the bumpy track, Andretti took only 14 laps Thursday to pump his car up to 215.009 m.p.h. Rahal posted the second fastest time with 213.217 and Mears was third in 211.896.

After Andretti had calmed down, he said the MIS track actually is

``better than last year. There has been a real effort by Penske and his people to address the situation. This is the best the track can be without a full paving.``

Two of the speedway`s most notorious problem spots, at Turns 1 and 3, were repaired earlier this year. Why doesn`t Penske open up his famous bankroll and have the entire two-mile oval resurfaced?

It`s not that simple, and the obvious cost factor is only one element. The last time the track was resurfaced was after the 1977 season and the cost was $400,000. But even taking inflation into account, there`s a more significant reason than cost.

The track is simply too busy to permit the concrete trucks to take over. That`s because of Penske`s contract with American Motors Corporation. It uses Michigan Speedway 340 days a year for its environmental and other testing.

Penske purchased MIS for $2.9 million in 1973 from American Raceways, an operator that went into receivership. The biggest piece of paper Penske carried to the bank to swing the deal was a contract with American Motors, and it has operated a continuous testing program ever since.

``American Motors constantly runs tests in the dead of winter,`` an observer said. ``There is plowing and salting all winter and the track gets constant wear and tear. If Penske were to shut down for repairs, he would face not only the cost of repaving, but the lost revenue from American Motors.``

Penske isn`t sitting on his bankroll. He continues to make capital improvements at the track. This year, the pit road was widened and a three-foot safety wall was installed between the track and the pit road, replacing the old guard wall. Fourteen new garages were built, and the entire pit lane has been repaved.

``It was full of bumps and dips,`` a Penske spokesman said proudly. ``Now it`s smooth as a billiard table.``

Andretti, who won the pole and the race last year, will shoot for the pole again Friday when qualifying opens. Andretti beat out Sneva in the race by 14-hundredths of a second, the smallest victory margin in the history of Indy-car racing.